The price of the club
Yesterday Key justified our likely military intervention in Iraq as “the price” of being in “the club” with other Five Eyes countries.
Where is Cameron Slater?
Yesterday I got contacted about Cameron Slater’s current address. Apparently the arsehole of the kiwi blogosphere hasn’t been paying his court ordered judgements against him that have been incurred in recent years. The person who contacted me wanted to serve a notice to bankrupt him.
Open mike 21/01/2015
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Who was the better economic manager – Helen Clark or John Key?
Sometimes a simple graph is much more eloquent and powerful than a whole lot of words …
NRT: GCHQ spies on journalists
I/S – “GCHQ considers investigative journalists a “security threat” alongside hackers and terrorists”…
NRT: Our financial laws mean nothing
I/S – “the Financial Markets Authority knew about almost 4,000 crimes and never bothered to prosecute any of them”…
Espiner profile on Andrew Little
Guyon Espiner has a paywalled profile of Andrew Little up at The Listener.
RMA reforms … be very afraid
Nick Smith today announced proposed changes to the Resource Management Act. It is likely he will resuscitate the reforms that were stalled after Peter Dunne refused to support them last year. ACT’s David Seymour has said he will support the changes even though he did not know what they are. Treasury are to release a paper with proposals for change. Updated lprent – yep National stupidity reprised.
Where have all the houses gone?
Yesterday it was announced that Auckland is the ninth least affordable city in the world requiring 8.3 times their average wage to buy a home. Reducing regulation hasn’t worked, otherwise more than 20 homes would have been built under the 2013 fast track accord. The problem is a shortage of affordable housing.
Open mike 20/01/2015
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Top 1% own 50% of world wealth: Oxfam
Winnie Biyanyima of Oxfam is one of six co-chairs at the Davos World Economic Forum. She says her role is to challenge the powerful elites, and she goes armed with a new report that shows that on current trends by next year the world’s richest !% will hold more wealth than the other 99%. She’s got some good ideas on what to do about it too.
An interesting milestone
An interesting milestone in inequality is about to be passed.
Protecting our Freedom
UK PM David Cameron thinks freedom will be enhanced by monitoring everything – something we used to call totalitarianism. We need more encryption and to make sure the internet is built for the people, not the data-miners – be they our security agencies, criminal gangs, or facebook.
War Begets War
We’re not good at learning from history.
Andrea Vance on Andrew Little’s game plan
Andrew Little will give his state of the nation speech on 28 January. What can we expect to see in it?
Open mike 19/01/2015
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
2014 hottest year – a good thing!
As widely reported, 2014 was the hottest year on record. And that’s a good thing!
A discussion on the media
The team at Scoop are running a series called “The State of the NZ News Media – A Public Conversation”.
What should John Key do in 2015?
James Griffin has written a tongue in cheek article on what John Key should be doing this year. But the article is full of political fluff and has no real proposals for action. What should John Key be doing this year?
Open mike 18/01/2015
The Authors of The Standard are now in holiday mode. Posting will be less regular and dependant on individual author enthusiasm.
The “pop-star” economy could go pop
This the time of year when papers are thin and economic prognostications abound as the pop-star economists from banks and brokers look to […]
TV3, Cameron Brewer and more of the same
TV3 recently interviewed Cameron Brewer to provide adverse commentary on a story about Labour seeded by David Farrar and Cameron Slater. And they did not even mention Brewer’s links to the National Party.
Free Raif Badawi
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1000 lashes. The international outrage is growing.
Skypath
Generation Zero encourages you to make a submission on the Skypath. All those in favour – say so!
The Light Dawns
The evidence is surely mounting that the remedies to recession proposed by orthodox policy have failed.
The whole basis of monetarist policy is revealed to be a charade.
Open mike 17/01/2015
The Authors of The Standard are now in holiday mode. Posting will be less regular and dependant on individual author enthusiasm.
Shortlist for GCSB Chief announced
It makes for great reading and throws the net wider than last time… just Check it out here
Who texts the PM?
The latest excuse for John Key deleting his texts wholesale is wafer-thin.
No quick fix for diseases of poverty
The continued rise of rheumatic fever is an indictment of our society.
New figures show that there is no quick fix for diseases of poverty.
Your move, National.
Open mike 16/01/2015
The Authors of The Standard are now in holiday mode. Posting will be less regular and dependant on individual author enthusiasm.
Sacrificing our Sovereignty in the name of Free Trade
The United Kingdom is debating entry into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which like the TPPA will allow investor-state disputes to be resolved by unappealable unaccountable private arbitration. George Monbiot in the Guardian describes the issue well and has suggestions on how the proposal can be challenged.
Emerson on Key’s hypocrisy
Exploiting the Charlie Hebdo attack
How many governments are using the Paris / Charlie Hebdo attack as an excuse to increase surveillance or otherwise remove civil protections? The UK and Australia for starters…
Open mike 15/01/2015
The Authors of The Standard are now in holiday mode. Posting will be less regular and dependant on individual author enthusiasm.
NRT: Waihopaiology
Idiot Savant speculates on why GCSB Director Ian Fletcher is standing down so unexpectedly. Maybe another GCSB stuffup? Which of course someone has to fall on their sword for, but which must be kept secret for “security reasons” (aka “if the victims knew, they’d sue us and complain to the police”).
The Key dynasty
What is with the paparazzi-like obsession with Max Key?